"Only one gentleman, sir. I don't know what his name was." "What was he like?" "He was a smallish man, and thin, and didn't wear no hair on his face." "Thank you. Here is a sovereign for your trouble. "That is something, at any rate, George," he went on, as the man was rowed away. "The whole proceeding is a very strange one, and you see the description of the man with Carthew exactly answers to that of the man who found out from the boat's crew that Dr. Maddison was attending Lady Greendale; and now you see that it is quite possible that the Phantom is somewhere near, or was somewhere near yesterday afternoon. Carthew may have hired a foreign crew, and sailed in her a couple of days after her own crew came over; or he may have hired another craft either abroad or here. At any rate, there is something to do. I will go up to town by the midday train, and then down to Dover, and cross to Ostend tonight." "Begging your pardon, Major, could not you telegraph to the harbour master at Ostend, asking if the Phantom is there?" "I might do that, George, but if I go over there I may pick up some clue. I may find out what hotel he stopped at after the crew had left, and if so, whether he crossed to England or left by a train for France. There is no saying what information I may light on. You stay on board here. You can be of no use to me on the journey, and may be of use here. I will telegraph to you from Ostend. Possibly I may want the yacht to sail at once to Dover to meet me there, or you may have to go up to town to do something for me. "Now I must go down and tell Lady Greendale as much as is necessary. It will, of course, be the best thing for her to go up to town with me, but if she is not well enough for that, of course she must stay on board." Lady Greendale had just come into the saloon when he went down. "I think I have got a clue--a very faint one," he said. "I am going up to town at once to follow it up. How are you feeling, Lady Greendale?" "I have a terrible headache, but that is nothing. Of course, I will go up with you." "But do you feel equal to it?" "Oh, yes, quite," she said, feverishly. "What is your clue, Frank?" "Well, it concerns the yacht in which I believe Bertha has been carried off. At any rate, I feel so certain as to who had a hand in it, that I have no hesitation in telling you that it was Carthew." "Mr. Carthew! Impossible, Frank. He always seemed to me a particularly pleasant and gentlemanly man." "He might seem that, but I happen to know other things about him. He is an unmitigated scoundrel. Of course, not a word must be said about it, Lady Greendale. You see that for Bertha's sake we must work quietly. It would never do for the matter to get into the papers." "It would be too dreadful, Frank. I do think that it would kill me. I will trust it in your hands altogether. I have only one comfort in this dreadful affair, and that is that Bertha has Anna with her."